The National Earth System Prediction Capability (ESPC) Project Office, located in the OAR Office of Weather and Air Quality, recently held the National ESPC’s Executive Steering Group (ESG) meeting on 18 April, 2016. The National ESPC’s mission is to create a suite of numerical prediction systems supporting decisions across weather and decadal time scales by leveraging coordinated development between the partner agencies (NOAA/OAR, NOAA/NWS, US Navy, US Air Force, Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration). For NOAA, Mr. Craig McLean signed for the Ocean and Atmospheric Research (OAR) and Dr. Louie Uccellini signed for the National Weather Service (NWS).
At this meeting, the ESG signed a major revision to the National ESPC Charter. The signing event represents a capstone achievement following two years’ worth of work, and combines the efforts of the existing National Unified Operational Prediction Capability (NUOPC) and earlier ESPC partnership. The major revisions of the charter enhance interagency research coordination to improve global coupled analysis and prediction capabilities, accelerate transition of research to operations with the three operational environmental prediction agencies (NOAA/NWS, Navy, Air Force), and make progress towards support products and information at lead times of weeks to thirty years.
